China's human rights record under scrutiny at U.N.

Oct. 23, 2013
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Activists from the "Students for a Free Tibet organization" display a banner on scaffolding in front of the of the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Oct. 22. / Jean-christophe Bott, AP

by Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

by Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

BEIJING - Amid a crackdown on dissent at home, the Chinese government defended its human rights record Tuesday at the United Nations in Geneva during an unusually public review of sensitive issues Beijing prefers to keep behind closed doors.

While admitting to "difficulties and challenges" in human rights, Chinese envoy Wu Hailong told the Swiss-based U.N. Human Rights Council that the Chinese people enjoyed a more prosperous economy, greater democracy and better rule of law than the last time China was reviewed, four years ago. They're happier too, said Wu.

But the United States and rights groups pointed out that crackdowns on human rights have gotten worse since Communist Party leader Xi Jinping took power last fall.

"The initial positive signs have been overshadowed by events in recent months, there has been a tightening and a move backwards in human rights," said said Maya Wang, a researcher in Hong Kong for Human Rights Watch.

"It is a worrying indication of the direction Xi is taking," early in his likely 10-year rule.

All U.N. member states undergo the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process every four to five years. Wu stressed China's achievements in poverty reduction, its ongoing judicial reforms and investment in ethnic minority areas. During the three-hour session Tuesday, representatives from dozens of nations were each given 50 seconds to comment on China's report.

China allies including Venezuela gave Beijing an easy ride by praising China's efforts. The United States, like several Western nations, called for significant change.

China should "end the use of harassment, detention, arrest, and extralegal measures such as enforced disappearance to control and silence human rights activists as well as their family members and friends," said Uzra Zeya, acting assistant secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.

China should also better protect the rights of Tibetans, Uighurs and Mongolians, abolish labor camps and ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, she said.

Tibetan activists managed to get past U.N. security and enter the grounds of the Palais des Nations, where the meeting was being held, and unfurl a banner denouncing China's rule in Tibet.

Zeya cited the example of Xu Zhiyong, founder of the "New Citizens' Movement" that calls for Chinese officials to disclose their assets and urges citizens to combat corruption. Xu was arrested in August on a charge of "gathering a crowd to disturb order in a public place," a charge he was detained a month earlier. Over 50 people have been detained in connection with this civil rights group, according to Human Rights Watch.

Guangzhou-based activist Yang Maodong has been arrested on the same charge.

And Monday, Chinese authorities formally arrested Wang Gongquan, a millionaire venture capitalist with a passion for social justice, as part of a crackdown on government critics. Wang was an outspoken supporter of arrested legal scholar Xu Zhiyong.

The 47-nation Human Rights Council has a rotating membership and no binding powers, but activists insisted the process of reviewing China's record was still worthwhile.

"This is the only high-profile review of China that is open for NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and for everybody to take a look at," unlike the closed-door bilateral human rights dialogues, said Wang.

Officials have blocked Chinese people's efforts to participate in the process, said Wang, including the legal activist Cao Shunli, who has disappeared and is feared detained after being stopped in September from boarding a plane to Switzerland to attend a U.N. human rights training course. Cao planned to attend Tuesday's review in person.

Her disappearance is typical of China's worsening human rights situation under Xi, said Wang.

China's state-run media has allotted minimal coverage to this UPR, as with many human rights issues, and it drew little response Tuesday in China's often lively social media world.

On Sina Weibo, a popular Twitter-like micro-blogging service, Shi Pu, an economics professor in central Henan province, wrote that "China's 'human rights' are the ruling party's rights, they're the government's rights, they're the financial rights of bureaucrats ... not the human rights of ordinary people."

Beijing lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan wrote, also on Sina Weibo, that "Chinese petitioners are best qualified to speak on human rights conditions in China." One such petitioner, typical of the millions who pursue usually hopeless searches for justice through the country's 'letters and visits' system, criticized Wu Hailong's report Tuesday.

"We common people have not yet felt what is the rule of law â?? or otherwise how would my house be illegally demolished, and my person illegally detained for a month," said Li Meiqing, 42, a former home-owner in south Beijing who says her house was leveled without compensation. Her sister remains in detention for resisting the demolition of her property, said Li.

"Nobody supervises the officials, their power is too great," she said.

After decades of experience, most Chinese people know that whenever officials speak, or the state broadcaster runs the evening news, only good things get aired, never bad, said Beijing-based artist Tu Shia. The report in Geneva "is all lies," he said.

Envoy Wu Hailong said China enjoys freedom of expression, "but if we want to express our opinions online, so many sensitive words will automatically be deleted that we cannot post our opinion," said Tu, 47. "How can that be called freedom of expression?"